Summer has arrived

Ah, May; the weather is forecasted to have temperatures in the 80s and plentiful sunshine for the next five days. Lawns everywhere are dotted with people reading a book, tossing a frisbee, or just enjoying the weather. Daylight hours stretch from 5:30 am to 8:30 pm, granting more time to enjoy being outside. As for what to do with this time, here are The Poly’s recommendations.

Within reach with just your own two feet are a few nice places to relax. Grab some local produce from the Troy Waterfront Farmers’ Market and eat it at the Riverfront Park along the shores of the Hudson River. Prospect Park is a great place to take a walk, picnic, and enjoy the stunning views over the valley. Poestenkill Gorge Park has dramatic rock cliffs, an abundance of trees, and some substantial waterfalls, and it’s a half-mile walk from campus.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a car or know a friend with a car, there are numerous options for day-trips. This weekend, May 9 and 10, Albany will host the annual Tulip Festival in Washington Park. Thatcher State Park’s Indian Ladder Trail passes along the top of a 1,300 foot tall cliff face, then plunges down a staircase to the base of a handful of waterfalls. Peeble’s Island State Park and Grafton Lakes State Park are great places to bring a group of friends and spend the day either hiking and picnicking (Peeble’s and Grafton) or swimming and spending time at the beach (Grafton).

A little farther out are Mt. Greylock State Reservation, Green Mountain National Forest, Lake George, and the Adirondacks in general; all of which boast spectacular mountain terrain and are great places to just get away to for a day. For the less outdoorsy type, there’s also options in a day trip to Saratoga Springs or Bennington, or a weekend trip to New York City and Boston.

If you’re just looking for a little something to do here on campus in a spare hour, there’s the hill next to the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (there’s two sides to it!), the Sage Building Quad, the ’86 Field, the area around the Voorhees Computing Center, the Quad Quad, the Union Patio, Freshman Hill, Anderson Field, and all of ECAV. Pick up a frisbee, football, soccer ball, lacrosse stick, rollerblade, tennis racket, tennis ball, running shoes, blanket to eat on, or even nothing at all and have some fun or just relax with your friends. The end of the semester is really stressful, and counterintuitively, spending some time not working will actually improve results on last exams, projects, or finals.